Welcome to the Anime Walk of Fame, a series of retrospectives on the many characters of the anime world. You'll see all your favorites along with a few that deserve more than their reputations give.

So sit back relax and enjoy the show.

Izumi's Strange Behaviour has Tragic Undertones

To keep you guessing as to which characters will go on the top list let's throw a few more here.

Izumi compared to the other members of the Nadesico crew can be seen as probably the most overlooked character in the series, her appearance shouts goth girl, her voice certainly in the dub makes her sound like the type of person who could tell a good ghost story and her presence is felt through terrible singing, groaner puns and very deadpan humour that makes her laughing very strained as if she's forcing it at times.
In most cases you can write her off as just the strange one and move on, but in a mid season episode that has the crew confront their biggest insecurities, it becomes clear as to why Izumi acts the way she does and even why she's not that interested in the crew's men.
She lost her previous two lovers, one to illness, another to an accident, in the episode she came face to face with the image of one of her dead lovers and you can feel her break character in argubly one of the most tragic moments in the anime.
All her personality quirks are just a coping mechanism which I doubt she has the strength to break and return to normal, something which alot of people can relate to, certainly I can with what the pandemic put me through, if we want to admit it or not.

Miku Had Another Life as a Train Driver

You've probably recently seen anime clips of Hatsune Miku from an anime called Janshin Chan Dropkick, Black Rock Shooter not withstanding, this isn't the only time Hatsune Miku was an actual character in an anime.

For reference, the anime in question Miku is in is known as Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion.
The anime is about bullet trains that transform into giant robots operated by kids to defeat monsters, the franchise is in direct sponsorship from a toy train maker, so it's an obvious toy anime.
Hatsune Miku is portrayed as a much younger girl of 11 years old with her own Shinkalion train robot based on the H5 Hayabusa from Hokkaido, but her personality is far from the cute care free idol singer we all know her for but rather a cold, stoic, no nonsense character who doesn't really have time to entertain the wide eyed lead characters when they geek out, Miku is also lacking her electronic vocaloid accent as we see her regular voice actress speak normally.
Shinkalion is very much a Japan only anime so many people don't know this bar a few curious people who may have caught it while looking up the Janshin Chan Dropkick scenes where Miku acts closer to her regular personality and even comes with her own Crypton Future Media Manager.
This might not be the last we see of Miku as she may become a character in another project. A couple more anime to drop where Miku has appeared is Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei as a voiced cameo and Aware Meisaku-kun where Miku has her own episode to celebrate her singing the new ending theme at the time.

Roux Was a Decade too Early

Finding strong female characters in the 80s was tough and was never a popular choice with otaku at the time if the 80s female popularity list in Newtype is anything to go by.
The Dirty Pair, The Knight Sabers along with our next entry were all overlooked.

Roux Louka was the pilot who took over the Zeta Gundam seat from Kamille Bidan after he ended up comatosed at the end of Zeta Gundam.
Her role is exactly the same as Emma Sheen's, being the big sister mentor to the hapless Judau Ashta and his friends from the Shangri-La colony.
She easily put Glemy Toto in his place many times and while she can be abrasive, she's a little more laid back than Emma was, so why did no one take notice? She even has the 80s look down.
When you actually read who made the list to begin with, the majority are supporting Gundam ladies like Sayla Mass and Fa Yuiry, cute and adorable like Elpeo Ple and Minky Momo, evil is sexy like Haman Karn and Doronjo or outright iconic like Lum. The exceptions being Honey Kisaragi and Ple Two who are more in line with the 90s tastes but still made the list.
That's where the answer lies, Roux was a decade too early, in the 90s and 00s she'd be quite high on the list but in the 80s she's a non entity.
Otaku tastes in the 80s just boiled down to, would make a good girlfriend, make a cute little sister or again, evil is sexy; no space for strong females.

Nice Design Doesn't Equal Success For Itsuki

Quite often a nicely designed character comes along who is instantly remembered for better or for worse, ask the entire extended Pokemon cast. But for Itsuki that's not the case.

The Aestivalis pilot of Martian Successor Nadesico Itsuki Kazama was doomed from the start, in her only appearance she takes lead character Akito's place after he walks out on the crew for the umpteenth time; Itsuki is pretty, dependable and has a design that fits in nicely with the series but when she goes into battle she is killed instantly when her enemy teleports, crushing her as a result as her body couldn't stand the extreme forces involved in teleporting.
The definition of cannon fodder, but remarkably while researching her character, she does have her own figure, so she did stand out but when competing against a large cast of desirable women on the Nadesico crew, there's just no room for the straight A woman soldier.

Christina Was Wasted Potential

In Loran's article, I mentioned that Gundam will finally have it's first female protagonist but I can imagine anyone who reads this with high Gundam knowledge will bring up Christina Mackenzie. Kind of a poor example and I'll tell you why.

In the War in the Pocket OVA, Christina is the test pilot for the prototype Gundam Alex intended to be a replacement for Amuro Ray's OG Gundam, while Christina's history indicates a pretty good background in the military, she's not really there for combat purposes, and she's also not really the lead character, that honour is either Bernard Wiseman the Zeon pilot sent to destroy the Alex or Alfred, the kid who takes in Bernard.
Christina is also a girl next door type, nice and pleasant but not really screaming main character material although she ranked better than Emma Sheen, Roux Louka and Elle Vianno among women who actually pilot Gundams but loses out to non pilots, villains and anyone with the name Elpeo Ple, her potential was there but ultimately she never did anything afterwards as the project was scrapped and was never brought on board for other projects within the Universal Century.
It wasn't until Gundam Seed that female characters in Gundam could reach the heights of other big time female characters in the medium.
I won't forget Christina but the majority probably will which is a shame.